Manufacture of soda ash from wyoming trona

ABSTRACT

Soda ash is prepared from crude trona containing organic impurities by calcining the crude trona to produce crude soda ash containing the organic impurities, dissolving the resultant anhydrous sodium carbonate in aqueous medium to produce a substantially saturated solution of sodium carbonate containing organics, and deactivating the organics with hydrogen peroxide, activated by sodium persulfate.

United States Patent [191 Ilardi et al.

[ 1 Feb. 20, 1973 [S4] MANUFACTURE OF SODA ASH FROM WYOMING TRONA [75] Inventors: Joseph M. Ilardi, East Brunswick;

Eric Ran, Trenton, both of NJ.

[73] Assignee: International Research and Development Corp., Green River, Wyoming [22] Filed: I Jan. 29, 1971 [21] Appl.No.: 111,118

[52] US. Cl ..423/206, 423/184 [51] Int. Cl. ..C01d 7/30 [58] Field of Search ..23/63, 298, 300, 302', 423/206,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 12/1934 Hellmers ..23/63 6/1961 Osborne ..23/63X OTHER PUBLICATIONS I-Iackh's Chemical Dictionary, page 481 (4th edition McGraw-I-Iill I969).

Mellor, Inorganic & Theoretical Chemistry, Vol. 10, page 476 (Longmans, Green & Co., 1947).

Primary ExaminerEdward J. Meros Assistant Examiner-Charles B. Rodman AttorneyMilton Zucker, Frank Ianno, Eugene E. Seems and Pauline Newman [57] ABSTRACT 2 Claims, No Drawings MANUFACTURE OF SODA ASH FROM WYOMING TRONA BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION (trona) which underlie a large area in southwestern Wyoming. A similar deposit exists in Kenya. Substantially all the growth in soda ash capacity in the United States for this period has been in the utilization of this deposit.

Two basic processes have been used commercially in the processing of the ore, which typically contains, in addition to more than 90 percent of sodium sesquicarbonate, traces of sodium chloride, sodium sulfate and Fe O several tenths of a percent of organic matter, and to 7 percent of insolubles, largely silicates. One process dissolves the sesquicarbonate as such, treats the solution to remove insolubles and organic matter, and then crystallizes sodium sesquicarbonate, which may be used as such or calcined to soda ash. The resultant soda ash is pseudomorphic in form after the crystal pattern of the sodium sesquicarbonate, and special additives are needed to get desirable crystal properties. Moreover, the crystal structure is different from that obtained by the conventional Solvay process, so that the product is sometimes difficult to substitute for conventional Solvay process soda ash.

The second basic process for handling natural trona produces a product which is like Solvay process ash. In this process, the trona is first calcined to crude soda ash; the ash is dissolved, and the solution treated to remove insolubles. The resultant solution is crystallized to produce sodium carbonate monohydrate crystals, which are then treated to remove the water of hydration and produce soda ash.

The organics present in the crude trona must be removed, or compensated for, if satisfactory crystals, which will produce ash of acceptable physical structure, are to be obtained in the crystallization-whether monohydrate, which is the product of commerce, or anhydrous soda ash, which can be produced in known fashion by the use of special crystallizing conditions 13, 1956). If the organics are not removed, poor crystals are produced, and the product occupies too large a volume, making it uneconomic to ship and handle. Additionally, foaming occurs in the crystallizer, complicating processing.

The standard method for removing organics is to use columns containing activated carbon, through which the crude sodium carbonate solution is pumped; the organics are adsorbed by the carbon, resulting in a solution which will yield crystals in a desirable fashion. This method requires a substantial capital outlay for carbontreating columns and pumps, and a continuous outlay for treating chemicals, but it has been used in commercial installations for lack of a better method.

It has been suggested (U. S. Pat. No. 2,989,369, issued June 20, 1961) that treatment of the solution with Cl, or Br, prior to crystallization will deactivate the organics, but since several tenths of a percent of halogen are needed, the process is impractical because of inherent corrosion problems. The patentees prefer to ,(see Seaton et a]. U. S. Pat. No. 2,770,524, issued Nov.

treat their finished sodium carbonate with dry Cl, gas to improve the product.

An alternate method is to calcine the crude trona at a temperature high enough to burn off the organics without fusing the crude trona. Such a process is described in Seglin et al U. S. Pat. No. 2,962,348, issued Nov. 29, 1960. However, high calcination temperatures have not been used commercially because they induce a reaction between the sodium carbonate and the insoluble silicates present in the ore, to produce sodium silicates, which go into solution and contaminate the product. The amount of silica solubilized depends on the time and temperature of calcination. Even at minimum temperatures (about 375C) needed to burn off the organics, enough SiO, is solubilized to sodium silicate to cause difficulties in the crystallizer. As a result, this route has not met with commercial acceptance.

OBJECT OF THIS INVENTION It is the object of this invention to produce soda ash from trona by the precalcination process without the necessity for expensive carbon treatment to remove organics.

STATEMENT OF THE INVENTION This object is attained, in accordance with this invention, by using, in the standard process for making soda ash in which crude trona is calcined to crude soda ash at a temperature too low to deactivate the organics, the crude ash is dissolved to make a saturated aqueous solution, the insolubles and organics are largely removed, and the sodium carbonate is then crystallized and calcined to soda ash, the step which comprises deactivating the organics before crystallization, at a temperature not in excess of C, with aqueous hydrogen peroxide activated with sodium persulfate, using at least as much active oxygen derived from hydrogen peroxide as the amount of oxygen needed to produce CO, from the organics by direct combustion at elevated temperatures. Unexpectedly, the process increases the bulk density of the soda ash over that obtained by conventional carbon treatment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION-OF THE INVENTION In operating in accordance with this invention, we convert crude trona to soda ash by the commercial lowtemperature calcination process in which crude trona is calcined to crude soda ash at temperatures too low to destroy or deactivate the organics (350C or less), the crude soda ash is made into a saturated sodium carbonate solution containing suspended solids and organics, the solids are removed, and the solution is'then treated to neutralize organics before crystallization and calcination to soda ash. We can use any of the standard variations of the process; the novelty and invention lie in our method of deactivating the organics.

We do this by adding to the solution an aqueous active oxygen solution containing hydrogen peroxide together with sodium persulfate to activate the hydrogen peroxide. At least sufficient hydrogen peroxide is used to produce stoichiometric amounts of active oxygen, with optimum results about twice stoichiometric. The stoichiometric amount of oxygen needed can lwul-u tn. on.

be determined by oxidizing the organics in a muffle furnace, andcollecting the C formed; or the same figure can be obtained by titration with a standard bichromate solution.

The sodium persulfate comprises about 5 to 15 percent of the total weight of the solution when the standard 30 percentaqueous hydrogen peroxide of commerce is used, less when more concentrated solutions are used, i.e., it is present to about one-sixth to onehalf of the weight of 100 percent hydrogen peroxide, most preferably about one-third of the weight of 100 percent hydrogen peroxide.

The treatment isa simple one, involving simple addition of the desired amount of peroxide-persulfate with the hot clarified sodium carbonate solution, and holding for a short period. This can be accomplished by adding the peroxygen solution to the hold tanks which are used to feed the c'rystallizer, eliminating the entire carbon-treating section of conventional plants.

The temperature at which the clarified liquor must be held cannot be over 75C, since the hydrogen peroxide decomposes at higher temperatures without acting on the organics. Some peroxide is lost even below 75C, but good results are obtained using amounts of hydrogen peroxide from stoichiometric to twice stoichiometric.

For reasons of heat economy, the sodium carbonate solution shouldbe at a temperature of at least 50C, although the hydrogen peroxide will work 'even at ordinary ambient temperatures. We have found about 60C to be an acceptable temperature for general operation. At this temperature, the reaction is complete in to minutes, but a hold time of 30 minutes is convenient. At temperatures of 70 to 75C, the reaction is complete in a few minutes; at lower temperatures, somewhat longer times, up to an hour, are necessary, depending on the temperature.

After the hold period, the solution is heated to the desired crystallization temperature, and fed to the crystallizer.

The. process puts no undesirable contaminants into the product, and has the unexpected result that products of substantially higher bulk density of the order of 25% can be obtained.

EXAMPLES OF THE INVENTION Example A A typical sample of natural trona from Green River was calcined for 1 hour at 150C in a muffle furnace to produce a crude ash containing 12 percent of water-insolubles. Enough of this calcined ore was dissolved in distilled water to give, after filtration, 1,690 grams of 30 percent sodium carbonate solution having a dissolved organic level of 140 parts per million (ppm) as soluble carbon. This aqueous ash solution was maintained at 60C with stirring. Into the 60C sodium carbonate solution was placed 0.309 gram of H,O,, which amounts to only 25 percent of that needed to totally oxidize the carbon in the 1,690 grams of solution to C0,. The active oxygen was added in the form of a solution consisting of 90 percent (30% H,O,) and 10 percent of Na,S,OWhich was acting as an activator and was not considered to donate to the calculated ,0, value of 0.309 gram. After the two solutions.(Na,CO, solution EXAMPLE I An Na CO solution was prepared similar to that outlined in Example A, also having 140 ppm of soluble carbon. In this second case, 1237 grams of H 0 was added to the 1,690 grams of solution, which represents enough active oxygen in the form of H 0 to totally oxidize the dissolvedorganics. The solution carbon level was dropped (after 30 minutes) from 140 to ppm. The crystals now grown were better than Example 1, having a nonsteady state bulk density of 43 pounds per cubic foot, which is equivalent to 63 pounds per cubic foot as anhydrous.

EXAMPLE 2 Same procedure as carried out in Examples A and 1, except that now 2.474 grams of B 0, was added, which is two times the amount of oxygen needed to convert the carbon to C0 The concentration of soluble organics now dropped from to 38 ppm of carbon. The resulting crystals grown were of a superior nature, having a nonsteady state bulk density of 52 pounds per cubic foot and a steady state bulk density of 72 pounds per cubic foot as anhydrous.

DEFINITIONS OF CRYSTALS Nonsteady State Crystals: Those grown under high degrees of supersaturation and low agitation levels. These conditions cause the crystals to grow in an elongated fashion and excessive twinning is noted. These misshapen and needlelike crystals were produced in a batch crystallizer.

Steady State Crystals: Those grown under lower degrees of supersaturation and higher agitation in a continuous-laboratory crystallizer. If one were to take a I solution of Na,CO and water and grow monohydrate crystals, the nonsteady state crystals would be needlelike, whereas the steady state material would be equidimensional.

Obviously, the examples can be multiplied without departing from the invention, which is defined in the claims.

We claim:

1. In the process for making soda ash in which Wyoming trona is calcined to crude soda ash containing organic impurities which interfere with crystallization, the crude soda ash is dissolved in water and the solution is clarified to remove insolubles, and the solution is crystallized, the improvement which comprises adding to the solution before crystallization at least enough hydrogen peroxide to yield active oxygen equivalent stoichiometrically to the organic impurities 6 in the solution, and sodium persulfate in amount from 2. The method of claim 1, in which the hydrogen One-sixth to (me-half of the Wflsh! of the hydrogen peroxide is added in at least about twice the peroxide, holding for a time before crystallization, at a temperature not in excess of 75C, to permit the peroxide to act on the organics, and thereafter crystallizing 5 sodium carbonate monohydrate from the solution.

stoichiometric quantity, whereby improved crystals of increased bulk density are obtained.

r-zecoz M. GIBSONIJR.)

'IJNI'IED ISI'IIATES PATEN'I OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION 3,7175 98 Dated F r y 1973 Patent No.

Joseph M. Ilardi and Erie m Inventor(s) It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Cover page [73]; Assignee "International" should read -Inter'mount-ain-. v

column 3,' line 65, "ma sz-ofihich" should read --1'\1a s2o which- Signed arid sealed this 17th day of December 1974.

(SEAL) Attest: I

I I c." MARSHALL DANN Attesting Officer Commissioner of' Patents FORM PO-IOSO (10-69) USCOMM-DC GONG-P69 ms. GOVIINIIIIIY nnmua omcc "a o-au-su 

1. In the process for making soda ash in which Wyoming trona is calcined to crude soda ash containing organic impurities which interfere with crystallization, the crude soda ash is dissolved in water and the solution is clarified to remove insolubles, and the solution is crystallized, the improvement which comprises adding to the solution before crystallization at least enough hydrogen peroxide to yield active oxygen equivalent stoichiometrically to the organic impurities in the solution, and sodium persulfate in amount from one-sixth to one-half of the weight of the hydrogen peroxide, holding for a time before crystallization, at a temperature not in excess of 75*C, to permit the peroxide to act on the organics, and thereafter crystallizing sodium carbonate monohydrate from the solution. 